


green black and blue make the colors in the sky

by rexflame



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Dance Dance Revolution - Freeform, Hiroki pretends he is, M/M, Taiyou is good at arcade games, the fluffy happiness these boys deserve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 20:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7947802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexflame/pseuds/rexflame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which hiroki moriyama might not be straight, and taiyou asukawa is similar to his namesake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	green black and blue make the colors in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: it has been a solid three years since i last played ddr  
> also i'm currently willing to do writing commissions in exchange for vanguard cards, hmu on tumblr (reginleif) or twitter (gwinevans) and we can work something out!

 

“You know, it’s alright if you hold my hand.”

 

Taiyou has an open smile like he often does, tilting his head over to Hiroki, who has kept a careful two steps behind their entire definitely-not date. He’s had his face hidden behind his cheap fast-food milkshake cup the entire time, and only moves it to respond to Taiyou.

 

“Why would I want to hold your hand, you loser?! True justice doesn’t want to interact with evil like that!” 

 

He shoves the straw of his milkshake into his mouth and begins to slurp it loudly. Taiyou laughs, and slows down his pace so somehow they end up side-by-side. Hiroki resists the urge (that he totally doesn’t have) to grab Taiyou’s hand with his free one and instead focuses on cool things, like Dimension Police and this surprisingly decent milkshake and justice and definitely not Taiyou’s eyes. And the fact that he has definitely not been reaching for Taiyou’s hand already, and he didn’t brush his fingers against Taiyou’s knuckles - why would he touch evil like that? He could get corrupted, or something, probably.

 

“Where are we going?” he asks, finally, when he hits the point of his milkshake that’s more frozen than drinkable and decides conversation is inevitable.

 

“The arcade!” Taiyou replies, and then begins rambling, a little skip in his step.

 

“There’s this racing game I really like, and there’s this game called  _ Legendary Shooter “Justice”  _ that I thought you’d like! It’s about, uhm, a superhero, I think?”

 

Taiyou had had him at the word ‘justice’.

 

“I have a lot of extra tokens,” he adds with a small smile.

 

“I hope you like arcades!”

 

“They’re fine,” Hiroki mutters, swirling his milkshake with a straw and pretending he doesn’t have any interest or excitement. He stops looking at the ice cream only to cross the street, and then once more becomes occupied with his quickly melting drink.

 

When they make it to the doors of the arcade, Taiyou stops abruptly, and Hiroki nearly barrels into him.

 

“Hey!” Hiroki protests, and then Taiyou turns to him and  _ grabs his hand  _ (ohmygodohmygod), and quickly deposits a mixed pile of tokens and quarters into it. 

 

He lets go of his hand too soon, in Hiroki’s professional opinion.

 

Taiyou’s smile is bright and sunny, then, and for a moment Hiroki has to question how anyone who can shine that bright can be evil. He actually does stand, dazed, for a few moments, before Taiyou nudges him and distantly asks if he’s ok.

 

He slurps his milkshake again, tosses his head confidently, and steps inside, Taiyou holding the door for him as if he were taking him on a date. Not as if this were a date.

 

Hiroki spots the machine straight away - it’s a two person shooter game, one gun blue and one gun a reddish-orange, both faded from use. The sign proclaims that anyone who beats the high score will win the current jackpot (440 tickets, apparently), and that it’s not for the faint of heart. 

 

“You gotta help me with this,” Hiroki says in his best commanding-and-not-politely-asking tone, stuffing the tokens into a pocket so he can latch onto Taiyou’s elbow, catching him in the process of heading off to play some Skee Ball.

 

Taiyou seems disappointed, momentarily, but his face lights right back up.

 

“Oh! You want to do two players?” 

 

Hiroki nods, takes a final slurp of his milkshake, and confidently shoots the empty container at the trash bin in the corner. It bounces off the rim. Shamefully, he walks over to pick it up and throw it into the bin - littering is illegal, after all.

 

“Yeah,” he finally adds aloud, “I want to beat the high score. I doubt you’ll be useful, but who knows, maybe you can get a few points.”

 

“I bet I can!” the sunny boy replies, in a rare burst of confidence, and they each put two tokens into the arcade machine. It makes a beeping noise at them in response, and then the screen commands them to pick up their guns.

 

Hiroki takes the blue and Taiyou takes the worn-out red.

 

The game has outdated graphics of poorly shaded pixels, and the enemies stagger towards them in glitchy waves, bearing dark capes and cliche masks. Taiyou gets surprisingly into the two-minute round, his tongue sticking out as he focuses heavily on his half - once he even does a dramatic spin, nearly tripping over the gun’s cord in his excitement - and Hiroki is torn between endearment and condescending amusement.

 

The game beeps when the round ends. Only then does Hiroki check the scores in the top of their screens

 

 **Player 1 (Blue)** **Player 2 (Red)**

**0079**

**0134**

“WHAT?!” 

 

Hiroki’s baffled (and quite angry) exclamation attracts the attention of the other few children in the arcade. Sheepishly, Taiyou puts the gun down and rubs the back of his neck.

 

“Hehe...well, I do come here a lot….”

 

Hiroki doesn’t respond, but looks around the arcade for another machine, something that he can  _ clearly  _ defeat the evil that is Taiyou Asukawa with. And then, he spots it.

 

Dance Dance Revolution.

 

The tickets pouring out of  _ Legendary Shooter “Justice”  _ are forgotten as Hiroki practically storms towards the machine. Taiyou, for his part, stays near their hard-won tickets, crouching beside the lines of white paper.

 

“Taiyou Asukawa!” 

 

Hiroki points dramatically at his newfound arcade rival, a smirk on his face. Taiyou stands up, looks around at the stares they’re getting, and then points to himself, as if he knew a lot of other people by that name.

 

“Dance Dance Revolution will prove that I am  _ true justice!  _ You can only hope to defeat me!” 

 

Taiyou seems taken aback, and then, of all things, he  _ smiles.  _ The nerve!

 

“I get to choose,” he says simply.

 

“Fine! There’s no way I’ll lose to you,” Hiroki huffs, putting his hands on his hips as Taiyou ambles over to select the song - they’ve attracted a bit of a crowd, thanks to Hiroki’s outburst.

 

Taiyou lingers on Butterfly for a second, and Hiroki visibly cringes. He then stops for a moment on Hot Limit before finally selecting 321 Stars. 

 

Taiyou leans back comfortably, his hands settling on the bar, and Hiroki feels he may have made a mistake in challenging him to this game. His face is drawn into a deathly serious line, one which Hiroki had formerly thought was reserved solely for cardfighting.

 

_ (1-2-3-2-1 uh!) _

 

DDR ends up taking all of Hiroki’s attention - the song is fast, and not one he’s played many times, certainly not one that easy for him to keep up with. He has no time to watch Taiyou, although he swears he hears the slightest laugh during the song. 

 

Somehow, the minute-and-a-half that 321 Stars is seems to take up closer to ten, each boy engrossed in their playing. When the song finishes, Hiroki has broken into a bit of a sweat - he wipes his forehead as Taiyou slumps back, breathlessly, staring at the combos displayed on the screen.

 

At Taiyou’s 300 combo. At Hiroki’s 94 combo.

 

“Rematch!” Hiroki declares angrily, feeding the machine more coins before Taiyou has a chance to object. 

 

This time he selects B4U before Taiyou can step forward and choose. He’ll win this time - of that, Hiroki is certain.

 

The song whizzes by. He does surpass Taiyou’s combo this time, but only just. This time, Taiyou happily feeds the machine coins.

 

“Best of three. That’s the only fair way!” 

 

Of course the third song has to be a classic. Butterfly.

 

Hiroki is, if he’s going to be perfectly honest, beginning to run out of steam already. Taiyou, meanwhile, seems even more energetic than when they’d started, stance firm and smile wide on his face.

 

Later, Hiroki will blame ultimately losing their DDR-off on Taiyou - thanks to Taiyou being  _ pretty  _ and  _ distracting. _

 

Taiyou smiles (does he ever stop?) when they win, and leans back against the bar, offering his hand to Hiroki. Hiroki lets out an undignified noise, crosses his arms, and refuses to shake it. 

 

“Just because you’re won this time doesn’t mean I won’t prevail!”

 

Taiyou laughs at that, and Hiroki looks away stubbornly.

 

“‘This time’? Are you inviting me out again?”

 

Hiroki feels his face grow hot. He stammers, looks for a reply, searches for something that’s not  _ I did enjoy this, actually, I wanna do it again. _

 

“O-of course not!” he argues, pointing dramatically at Taiyou.

 

“It was just bad wording!”

 

“If you want to go out with me again, it’s okay! I’m enjoying this,” Taiyou says in response, stepping down from the DDR machine, and Hiroki reluctantly follows. 

 

They spend a few hours messing around at the arcade - Taiyou shows surprising skill in Skee Ball, and wins an oversized stuffed unit toy from a crane machine. A few moments later, he thrusts the toy into Hiroki’s arms.

 

“I won it for you!” he adds.

 

Hiroki definitely doesn’t blush, and he definitely doesn’t clutch it closer to himself. It feels warm, somehow.

 

By the time they leave the arcade, it’s started to get dark. The cool night air feels nice against their skin, and Taiyou’s brown hair is illuminated a faint gold. Hiroki’s eyes reflect the purplish-red of the sunset and the soft light of the lampposts - the light which Taiyou sticks closely to, finally seeming a bit tired out. Hiroki holds the stuffed toy in one arm, pockets full of tickets, and he finds himself drifting closer to Taiyou when a chilly breeze blows through the air.

 

“Taiyou.”

 

Hiroki speaks with a confidence, and Taiyou stops in place, turns to him, head tilted slightly to the side. Hiroki takes quick strides across the sidewalk and finally takes the action he’s been wanting to all day - he quickly links his fingers with Taiyou’s, ears flushing pink.

 

Taiyou smiles.

 

“Don’t look so happy, dweeb!” Hiroki says crossly, but his heart isn’t in it.

 

Taiyou laughs again, and the night air echoes with his laughter and Hiroki’s protests. 


End file.
